User:Jerryboccijr

Contents

About Jerry

I'm Jerry Bocci, which legally includes "Jr", but since my dad is unlikely to visit the space, just "Jerry" is fine.

I'm also known (mostly online) as Runs With Lightning (or RWL), which harkens back to my gaming and hacking days of two decades hence.
(I've also been called Runs With Scissors, but we won't mention that again...)

Profession(s)

I am currently a "Systems Engineer" (.NET web application developer), contracted to the U.S. DoD / Army (which basically means, I can't discuss my work in a whole lot of detail). I've been in I.T. since 1993, as a contractor, and as a private consultant. My work generally involves web technology, but I have also done client-server and desktop apps, and have created a couple of simple Android apps for my phone.

I am familiar with the LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/MySql/PHP), but I'm mostly a .NET-kinda guy, and have considerably more experience with Microsoft platforms.

I also co-own a business, with my wife, developing consumer networks to help direct "sticky eyeballs" to partnered Fortune 500 companies, using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and direct contacts. Our education system is powered by Team One, a fabulous organization based in Southern California.

Hobbies

I have been a tinkerer ever since I learned that "broken" didn't always mean "non-playable". I would often disassemble (and sometimes reassemble) toys, tools, computers, small appliances, stereo equipment, and anything else I could carry to my "lab" (i.e., anywhere I could "operate" in solitude for an hour or two). My efforts were redirected by my father, who taught me to use larger tools to create things with wood, and by various teachers, who taught me to "measure twice, cut, then get another piece of stock and try again."

I set aside my tinkering over a decade ago, to focus my attentions (and affections) on my (then) new wife. Now that the thrill of newlyweddedbliss has mellowed, I am rediscovering my passion for all things that go "blink", "beep", "clunk", "thunk", and "squeal".

I am also an avid gamer (see nickname, above), enjoying in-person rather more than online. I'll take on any type of board, drawing, dicing, and card game, on a table, on a computer, on a console, or on a field (under that big blue thing with the yellow disc). RPGs are also a favorite, although it has been many years since I've played any.

Completed projects at the space

Fixed a troublesome TV remote (it'd been dropped, about a year ago, such that the little red LED stayed on all the time, draining batteries alarmingly fast)

Gave Morgen, my oldest daughter (now 11), the engineering bug; little does she know, but she WILL excel at STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).

Built several Larson Scanners with Morgen. (Actually, she's made two of them - I've only made one.)

Created a working Star Trek (Barfleet) Communicator Badge ($10 bluetooth earpiece cut down to bare circuitry, tiny speaker replaced with large flat one from birthday card, attached to back of Barfleet badge blank; still needs to be painted, but it works!)

TODO list

Fix a console-type stereo that my parents were going to trash (replace a couple of buttons and get gunk out of the CD-tray). This will give us sound (other than TV and PC speakers) in the living room, replacing the boom-box style stereo currently sitting in it's place. (The boom box works just fine, it just looks ugly, sounds mediocre, and doesn't help the feng shui of the room).

Play with my BeagleBone Black, probably by porting the logic and hardware from above DEQ/SSRs, tying into our home network for internet and locally cached audio, and rigging everything to the lights and stereo system.

Teach my daughters how to program their Beagle Bone Blacks.

(Finally) finish building my nephew a robot-themed (Transformers, etc.) desktop computer, using a BBB for the processor (with Android OS), a full-size tower case, touch-screen on the face of the machine, and internet capability. This will EVENTUALLY evolve (through extended sleepovers with Uncle Jerry) into a RC/VC transformable robot.

Build the several Kickstarter projects I've funded:

High Speed Laser Optical Sensor (not sure what to do with it, but it was cheap!)